David Campbell, Program Director, National Science Foundation, VAElaine Craft, Director, SC ATE Center of Excellence, SCArlen Gullickson, Consultant, EvaluATE Center, Western Michigan University, MILeVar Rashawn Farrior, Grants and Agreement Specialist, Division of Grants and Agreements, NationalScience Foundation, VAThis workshop is recommended for all principal investigators, co-principal investigators, and other team members involved in newly awarded projects and centers in FY12. Others who may find the workshop useful include new awardees in FY11 and other project personnel from prior years who have recently become involved in ATE projects and centers. The workshop will be divided into three parts: (1) ATE Program Issues. Topics to be covered include reporting requirements such as annual and final reports, working with NSF program officers, changes in project personnel or scope, data collection, FastLane and other reporting systems, use of Advisory Boards and National Visiting Committees, preparing project highlights for NSF and others, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and many other relevant topics. (2) Financial Management and Grant Management Issues. This section will focus on financial accounting issues and discuss in detail problems often seen in monitoring visits such as participant support, time and effort accounting, subawardees, record keeping, changes in scope, overload, and use of consultants. (3) Evaluation. This segment will address building in evaluation from the start of your project or center. The ATE program conducts an annual survey of all projects and centers that have been active for more than one year. Additional evaluation topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to, evaluation design, methods and instrumentation, resources for learning about productive evaluation, the roles of internal and external evaluators, and evaluation challenges.

The ultimate goal of technician education is to ensure that graduates have the right skills to be workforce-ready for high-wage positions. This goal requires business and industry to lead, not just advise. This workshop features “best-in-class” unique approaches to industry leadership of educational programs as used by four ATE centers: Convergence Technology Center (CTC), Boston-area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC), Florida Advanced Technological Education Center (FLATE), and the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education National Resource Center (SCATE). The session will also feature guidance and commentary from Brian Kelly, editor and organizer of the U.S. News and World Reports recent STEM Summit. Attendees will leave with a customized plan for incorporating at least one new approach for more effectively working with industry.

In this interactive workshop, participants will get a chance to discuss the all too common challenges associated with sustaining the valuable efforts and deliverables of their ATE projects and centers throughout the life cycle of their grant. Facilitated brainstorming and conversation will take place in a roundtable format, with participants selecting the topics of most interest to them--whether it's writing a solid sustainability plan for a proposal, defining sustainability, or examining strategies for integrating the work being done into your home institution. ATE PIs, along with experts from outside the ATE community, will share their expertise, proven practices, and lessons learned as a means to stimulate discussion and practical, yet creative approaches to sustainability issues.

Online video is changing the way people learn and process information. This workshop will look at the current state of online video, offer practical advice from a panel of experts on how to incorporate online video into your day-to-day operations, and provide hands-on instruction in basic video production using tools that are easily at your disposal. The session will include production of a brief video. Attendees need to bring their own laptops.

In this workshop, participants will receive hands-on guidance on evaluating their ATE initiatives in practical, yet meaningful ways. The Kirkpatrick “Levels” model for evaluation is a systematic approach for assessing a project’s quality and effectiveness in terms of participants’ satisfaction, learning of the material, application of new skills or content, and the resulting impact on performance. Workshop attendees will learn what questions should drive data collection at each level, steps to take to obtain data of sufficient quantity and quality, and how to interpret and use evaluation results. The last hour of the session will focus on strategies for tracking program graduates to determine their employment and education outcomes. This segment will be conducted as a panel session featuring ATE PIs who have been successful in tracking their graduates.

Community Colleges and Middle Jobs: Paving the Way for America’s RecoveryKeynote Speaker: Nicole Smith, Research Professor and Senior Economist, Center of Education and Workforce, Georgetown University, DC

The political discourse on the value of college education has not shifted to the left or the right. In fact, it’s shifted to the middle—on middle jobs that is. Community colleges are being recognized as key partners in providing our technical workforce with the 21st century skills necessary to compete in the global economy. Associate’s degrees, postsecondary certificates, and industry-based certifications are now accepted as instrumental pieces to the postsecondary landscape even though the higher education community is traditionally dominated by nonprofit and state-funded four-year institutions. This keynote will examine the tension that exists between skills shortages and demand shortages in explaining post-recession unemployment levels. It will present recent forecasts of middle jobs openings and discuss where the growth is according to industry trends. The session will end with a discussion on financing and the equity implications of efficiency metrics.

Social media is changing the way people work and socialize, offering both challenges and opportunities. The data exhaust we generate is enabling a new kind of computational social science, allowing us to understand human behavior in a new way. At the same time, issues of identity and privacy are becoming more prominent. This keynote address will cover what we can learn, what’s next, how our relationship to our data is changing, and what the workforce will look like in this data-rich future.

9:00 – 10:15 am21st Century Career Readiness: What Do You Need to Do to Prepare for America’s Future Workforce?(Open to Student Attendees Only)Congressional AB

This is a special session open only to student attendees to provide them an opportunity to talk directly with industry leaders to learn about the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century workplace, as well as tips and techniques for getting the right job!

Thanks to emerging technologies, growth, an aging workforce, international competition, and natural attrition, the energy industry in the United States is experiencing unprecedented workforce demands. Specifically, over the next two decades, the energy workforce needs will exceed 200,000 trained personnel. These future technicians will need a strong multi-disciplinary academic background coupled with problem solving abilities. This panel, comprised of energy industry experts, will articulate their visions of the 21st century energy technician. The panel consists of representatives from NextEra Energy Resources, the nation’s largest alternative energy generator; Southern Nuclear Company, the builder of the nation’s first two nuclear power plants in the 21st Century; and Hensel Phelps Construction Company, one of the nation’s largest construction companies focused on energy efficient building.

This session highlights the importance of skilled technicians in the transportation sector of the economy.Although few projects and centers in the ATE program focus on transportation, many educate technicians with the skills needed by this sector.The transportation sector is undergoing a massive infusion of new technologies that will change how technicians work in the near term.These technologies include Global Positioning Systems, remote sensing, alternative fuels, high speed rail, positive train control, real-time traveler information systems, crash avoidance systems, vehicle to vehicle communications, vehicle to infrastructure communications, NextGen air traffic control system, and others. Industry leaders will identify the technologies that are transforming transportation, address how those technologies will transform the operation and maintenance of our transportation systems, and discuss the implications for educating and training a technician labor pool. Time will also be made available for audience Q/A with the panelists.

Session 3: Deeper Learning for Life and Work in the 21st Century Empire

The needs of employers continue to evolve in response to the opportunities and challenges provided by new technologies and a competitive global economy.Decades ago computer literacy was a new requirement for employment. More recently, employers have sought employees with a broad collection of cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal 21st century competencies interwoven with deep technical knowledge. For example, a biotechnology technician should understand the principles of biotechnology, have mastered biotechnology skills, and be able to communicate effectively about biotechnology with both colleagues and customers. Our challenge as educators is to provide our students with opportunities to master these competencies and skills, so that they and their employers will be successful in the years ahead. Problem-Based learning is an instructional approach that challenges students to solve industry-based technical problems and master 21st Century competencies through deep, complex learning experiences. Panelists will discuss what is needed in education from the perspective of a problem-based learning educator, a researcher of 21st Century competencies, and an employer seeking 21st Century employees.

Recent estimates indicate that more than half of the jobs in this century will require some college education, and President Obama has called upon the nation to greatly increase the number of college graduates by 2020. To achieve this goal, many of the barriers that prevent student success in college must be overcome. These challenges are numerous and include math and English skills readiness, economic factors, time constraints, family responsibilities, and self-esteem issues. This panel will address three areas for improving college readiness for technician education programs: (1) strengthening collaborations between community college and K-12 to help reduce the need for developmental education; (2) effective remediation through accelerated learning programs; and (3) assistance to veterans in their quest for education and training beyond their military careers. Panelists will share promising strategies and lessons learned from Achieving the Dream, which is working with over 200 community colleges to close achievement gaps and accelerate student success nationwide.

12:00 – 2:15 pm Showcase II and LunchExhibit Hall

2:15 – 3:00 pmShowcase II BreakdownExhibit Hall

2:30 – 3:45 p.m. Birds of a Feather Sessions

The Birds of a Feather sessions are designed to provide an environment for colleagues with similar interests to meet for informal discussion. Conference evaluations have continually indicated that participants want more opportunities to network with their colleagues around areas of common interest. These sessions feature small group discussion to provide participants the opportunity to meet with peers; share promising practices, resources, and lessons learned; collaborate on future endeavors; and establish networks.Specifically selected session and discussion leaders will share expertise and facilitate access to an interactive information exchange on some of the most timely and important issues for the ATE community.ATE project and center teams are advised to divide their attendees among the different Birds of a Feather sessions to cover more ground at the conference and to benefit from multiple contacts.

A list of online resources will be available on the conference web site for each Birds of a Feather session; and participants are encouraged to contribute any additional resources for these lists on site.The Birds of a Feather resource lists will be updated and posted to the conference web site and ATE Central.

Note:Each Birds of a Feather session will be set for 40-50 attendees.Attendance at these discussion sessions is first-come, first-served.If the session room is full, please select another session to attend.The sessions will be offered from 2:30 – 3:45 p.m. and then repeat from 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. so participants have the opportunity to attend more than one session.

This birds of a feather session offers participants an opportunity to interact with a spectrum of industry representatives to discuss their perspectives on the role of community colleges in training future technicians, best practices in building industry/college partnerships, and understanding the skills needed for a 21st century technician. Industry representatives from energy generation, building sustainability, Microsystems, and water reclamation will be in attendance. These fields have tremendous workforce needs over the next twenty years across multi-disciplinary platforms. Discussion questions include: (1) How do you build productive partnerships and collaborations with business and industry? (2) How do you keep business and industry engaged? (3) What are the skills and strengths that are necessary to make valuable technicians in the 21st century? (4) What disciplines should colleges focus on growing to meet future industry needs?

Getting interested, qualified students into a two-year program is often much more than just convincing the potential student that it is a good decision. In many cases, parents, peers, and other influencers are uninformed about the field, job opportunities, and requirements for many technician programs. Hence, student recruitment requires clear, consistent information, energy, and patience. There are also a myriad of paths and approaches to reach any potential student.Discussion questions include: (1) What is the best way to get information to parents and or high school influencers? (2) How do I reach out to underrepresented populations in a culturally appropriate manner? (3)Should I use social media? How? Does it work? (4) What is the highest priority information to provide potential students? How do we not bury them with information or bore them? (5) How strict do I need to be on entrance “requirements?”

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on retention strategies that will improve completion rates of students in their ATE programs. Discussion will focus on bridge and building block STEM strategies, designing STEM courses to increase confidence in students, helping students to be more successful in the STEM lab, and strategies to retain more female and minority students. Discussion questions include: (1) How can you help students who come with few STEM building blocks and hands-on skills develop these skills in a short time-period so they can successfully participate in your STEM program?(2) Confidence is a predictor of success for many students in STEM disciplines. How will you modify or develop your curriculum to ensure confidence in your students right from the start of the semester. Would hands-on activities or problem-solving help to accomplish this? (3) How can you help your students be more successful in the lab so that you can improve their likelihood of retention in the course? (4) How can your ATE project or center retain more minority and female students?

Session 4: Developmental Math/English – Strengthening a Continuum for STEM LearnersAmbassadorFacilitator: Debra Bragg, Director, Office of Community College Research and Leadership, University of Illinois, IL

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on programs, practices, and strategies that are reforming developmental math and English in ways that improve student outcomes.Discussion will focus on current activities that ATE conference participants are using to assist developmental learners to advance through the curriculum in an expeditious manner that leads to competences associated with their being college and career ready.Discussion questions include: (1) What programs, practices, and strategies are you using that facilitate student learning? (2) What strategies is your college using to assist K-12 education to better prepare students for your technical programs? (3) How are faculty involved in developmental math and English reform activities?(4) Has your college conducted any research, including action research, to investigate who the students taking developmental courses are, what they learn as a result of taking the courses, and how they perform subsequent to developmental course taking?(5) What programs, practices, and strategies has your college tried to scale up and use institution wide?

Assessing participants’ (whether students, faculty, or others) satisfaction with an intervention and their immediate perceptions of how their learning, attitudes, or behaviors have changed is important in any evaluation. The problem is that many evaluations stop there. It is challenging to identify and collect data that are meaningful and valid indicators of change attributable to a project. In this session, participants will discuss their current evaluation practices and brainstorm alternative strategies for evaluating the impact of ATE initiatives. Discussion questions include: (1) What are your project’s (or the one you are evaluating) intended impacts/long-term outcomes? What indicators are you using to evaluate the project’s impact? (2) To what extent have you used institutional/college-level data, data from employers, and student assessment data in your evaluation? (3) To what extent does your evaluation include follow-up data from participants after their direct involvement with your project to determine mid- and long-term results?

Join colleagues in a discussion of problem-based learning (PBL) and entrepreneurship education in STEM along an entrepreneurship education spectrum. The entrepreneurial spectrum involves conceptualization (case studies, and PBL to create awareness about entrepreneurship); simulation (STEM Virtual Enterprise, gaming environments, and PBL to practice aspects of entrepreneurship); and incubation (contract research organizations and business incubators programs). Discussion questions include: (1) What are ways to use PBL in the two-year college STEM classroom? (2) What are ways to use active and problem-based learning as a means of instilling entrepreneurial skills? (3) How can you use the question, “How do you start a business?” as a PBL problem?

Session 7: Strategies for Successful Secondary School Pathways to STEM CareersGovernorsFacilitator: Kristi Jean, Nanoscience Program Coordinator, Center for Nanoscience Technology Training, North Dakota State College of Science, ND

The successful “2+2+2” model provides a seamless transition for secondary students to enter STEM careers.Community colleges play a critical role in this model as the middle “2” in delivering highly-skilled technical workers into the workforce pipeline.Recognizing that not all career pathway programs require a rigid “2+2+2” framework, flexibility must be allowed depending on regional industry needs.In this Birds of a Feather session, participants will share information on their strategies and current opportunities and challenges.Sharing information, resources, and lessons learned will allow participants to take their strategy and make the model a reality. Discussion questions include: (1) Have you developed a basic strategy or framework for a career pathway model?Have you clearly defined your role? (2) Have you identified the key partners and people to make it happen? (3) What challenges have you identified at the secondary level?What challenges have you identified in working the with four-year universities?Did you find a way to overcome these challenges? (4) Have you connected with local and regional industry to understand their workforce needs?How does their feedback get brought back into your strategic plan?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will discuss key issues in blended and distance learning in higher education such as ways to leverage online learning programs to increase the nation’s education level, creating an authentic online experience for students that builds the skills needed to succeed in the global workforce, professional development of online instructors, and issues of effectively measuring student performance online. Discussion questions include: (1) What is the greatest stigma around online degrees, and how can we combat it? (2) How do you create a community when faculty are geographically distant? (3) How do you create a student-centered, constructivist, authentic learning environment in an online/hybrid course? (4) How do you get students engaged and maintain that engagement and retention in blended and online courses?

In this session, participants will share their experiences when two- and four-year institutions collaborate and form partnerships.Win-Win scenarios, which have yielded mutually beneficial results, will be discussed.Discussion questions include: (1) What kind of partnership with a university would a community college consider valuable?What’s in it for the university? (2) How can joint grant writing and management efforts leverage the strengths of each institution to yield higher success rates?(3) How can leveraging university laboratories benefit both the types of institutions? (4) Community colleges are generally faster at responding to shifts in the workforce, how can the university take advantage of this? (5) How important is articulation?How can one move a technician into a four-year program? (6) What is the potential benefit of community college/university collaborations to stakeholders such as students, tax payers, and industry?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on using resources and best practices to manage their ATE projects and centers more effectively. Discussion will focus on understanding the responsibilities of a project manager/project director, how to organize and manage projects in the most effective manner, how to deal with unexpected problems if/when they occur, and how to identify and maximize the use of existing resources. Discussion questions include: (1) What are your responsibilities as a NSF project manager? (2) How do you continuously monitor your project for effectiveness? (3) How do you create and successfully manage projects being done by faculty and others not under your direct supervision? (4) How do you maintain consistent communication throughout the project staff and stakeholders?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on how to work effectively with institutional research (IR) offices to access and analyze data to make data-driven decisions; determine data needs for ATE programs including online activities to capture student progression and success; partner with state or multistate labor agencies to access employment outcomes for program graduates; determine the benefits and limits to tracking students post-program through a variety of methods (surveys, interviews, Unemployment Insurance wage records); and maximize promising practices and resources to guide program improvement and accountability efforts.Discussion questions include (1)How do you think critically about which data elements will produce the most meaningful insights to vital questions of student success? (2) What key partnerships are required to begin to access and analyze meaningful data? (3) How do you build institutional capacity for longitudinal student analysis for your programs? (4) How can data-sharing partnerships/agreements already in place at your institution be incorporated into your programs? (5) How do you use data to inform program sustainability?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will examine the dynamic between researchers conducting targeted research on technician education, ATE center and project PIs, and other stakeholders. Researchers want to know what types of data are most meaningful to ATE PIs’ work. In the course of their grants, PIs often make discoveries that they would like to document through rigorous research. This session will offer discussion on how and where both groups can come together to share ideas and findings, as well as how to reach out to new stakeholders. Discussion questions include: (1) How do ATE PIs see data informing the work that they do? How do they apply data and research findings to their day-to-day work? (2) What types of research do they find most useful? (3) What characteristics do ATE PIs look for in high-quality research? How do they define “quality?” (4) Who do ATE PIs see as the primary stakeholders for ATE Targeted Research projects? (5) What recommendations might ATE PIs offer to researchers regarding communicating the findings of research?

In this Birds of a Feather session,ATE conference participants will share information on harnessing social media platforms andtechnologies to communicate and engage with key audiences. Discussion will focus on currentinformation dissemination practices to determine how social media platforms may be used to streamlinecommunication practices and maximize the use of existing resources. Discussion questions include: (1) How do you create a strategy for leveraging social media platforms for information dissemination? (2) How do you create a tiered approach to information dissemination for your center or project? (3) How can you build your social media audience? (4) How can you increase engagement through the adoption of platforms that allow for real-timeinteraction, such as a micro-blogging, to allow for more regular communication between centers,projects, and social media audiences?

A new report from the National Research Council (2012), Education for Work and Life:Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century Skills, recommends design and delivery of instruction at all levels (from P-K through undergraduate) to foster deeper learning.Deeper learning is the process of learning for transfer—the ability to take what was learned in one situation and applying it to new situations.The product of deeper learning is transferable knowledge within a subject area, including content knowledge of the area and understanding of how, why, and when to apply this knowledge to answer questions or solve problems in that area. The report refers to this blend of closely intertwined knowledge and skills as “21st century competencies.”For example, through deeper learning of biotechnology, students would understand the general principles underlying biotechnology and also how to apply this understanding to support further learning and problem-solving in biotechnology. They would develop transferable 21st century competencies—encompassing cognitive knowledge, communications skills, and self-management skills—that would facilitate continued learning and problem-solving in biotechnology, both in college and in the workplace.Discussion questions include: (1) Are employers or trade associations asking your ATE program to develop 21st century skills?If so, which skills are they seeking? (2) How have you addressed the challenge of helping students gain deep technical knowledge and skills and also 21st century skills? (3) In your view, are skills and knowledge closely intertwined, or are they unrelated?Why do you have this view?

Universal Design in education is an approach to designing course instruction, materials, and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Modifications for students, especially for those with disabilities, are built into the curriculum, not merely added later on as needs arise. Universal Design provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. Simply stated, Universal Design is just good teaching!In this Birds of a Feather session, participants will share information on how they have engaged students with disabilities in their classrooms and the Universal Design principles that can be used to improve teaching and access to learning. Discussion questions include: (1) What challenges have you experienced teaching students with disabilities in your classes? How have you overcome these challenges? (2) What advanced planning did you need to do to accommodate students with disabilities in your course(s)? (3) Have you used Universal Design principles to improve instruction and access to learning in your classes? How did these modifications benefit students with disabilities? How did all students benefit?

This birds of a feather session offers participants an opportunity to interact with a spectrum of industry representatives to discuss their perspectives on the role of community colleges in training future technicians, best practices in building industry/college partnerships, and understanding the skills needed for a 21st century technician. Industry representatives from energy generation, building sustainability, Microsystems, and water reclamation will be in attendance. These fields have tremendous workforce needs over the next twenty years across multi-disciplinary platforms. Discussion questions include: (1) How do you build productive partnerships and collaborations with business and industry? (2) How do you keep business and industry engaged? (3) What are the skills and strengths that are necessary to make valuable technicians in the 21st century? (4) What disciplines should colleges focus on growing to meet future industry needs?

Getting interested, qualified students into a two-year program is often much more than just convincing the potential student that it is a good decision. In many cases, parents, peers, and other influencers are uninformed about the field, job opportunities, and requirements for many technician programs. Hence, student recruitment requires clear, consistent information, energy, and patience. There are also a myriad of paths and approaches to reach any potential student.Discussion questions include: (1) What is the best way to get information to parents and or high school influencers? (2) How do I reach out to underrepresented populations in a culturally appropriate manner? (3)Should I use social media? How? Does it work? (4) What is the highest priority information to provide potential students? How do we not bury them with information or bore them? (5) How strict do I need to be on entrance “requirements?”

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on retention strategies that will improve completion rates of students in their ATE programs. Discussion will focus on bridge and building block STEM strategies, designing STEM courses to increase confidence in students, helping students to be more successful in the STEM lab, and strategies to retain more female and minority students. Discussion questions include: (1) How can you help students who come with few STEM building blocks and hands-on skills develop these skills in a short time-period so they can successfully participate in your STEM program?(2) Confidence is a predictor of success for many students in STEM disciplines. How will you modify or develop your curriculum to ensure confidence in your students right from the start of the semester. Would hands-on activities or problem-solving help to accomplish this? (3) How can you help your students be more successful in the lab so that you can improve their likelihood of retention in the course? (4) How can your ATE project or center retain more minority and female students?

Session 4: Developmental Math/English – Strengthening a Continuum for STEM LearnersAmbassadorFacilitator: Debra Bragg, Director, Office of Community College Research and Leadership, University of Illinois, IL

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on programs, practices, and strategies that are reforming developmental math and English in ways that improve student outcomes.Discussion will focus on current activities that ATE conference participants are using to assist developmental learners to advance through the curriculum in an expeditious manner that leads to competences associated with their being college and career ready.Discussion questions include: (1) What programs, practices, and strategies are you using that facilitate student learning? (2) What strategies is your college using to assist K-12 education to better prepare students for your technical programs? (3) How are faculty involved in developmental math and English reform activities?(4) Has your college conducted any research, including action research, to investigate who the students taking developmental courses are, what they learn as a result of taking the courses, and how they perform subsequent to developmental course taking?(5) What programs, practices, and strategies has your college tried to scale up and use institution wide?

Assessing participants’ (whether students, faculty, or others) satisfaction with an intervention and their immediate perceptions of how their learning, attitudes, or behaviors have changed is important in any evaluation. The problem is that many evaluations stop there. It is challenging to identify and collect data that are meaningful and valid indicators of change attributable to a project. In this session, participants will discuss their current evaluation practices and brainstorm alternative strategies for evaluating the impact of ATE initiatives. Discussion questions include: (1) What are your project’s (or the one you are evaluating) intended impacts/long-term outcomes? What indicators are you using to evaluate the project’s impact? (2) To what extent have you used institutional/college-level data, data from employers, and student assessment data in your evaluation? (3) To what extent does your evaluation include follow-up data from participants after their direct involvement with your project to determine mid- and long-term results?

Join colleagues in a discussion of problem-based learning (PBL) and entrepreneurship education in STEM along an entrepreneurship education spectrum. The entrepreneurial spectrum involves conceptualization (case studies, and PBL to create awareness about entrepreneurship); simulation (STEM Virtual Enterprise, gaming environments, and PBL to practice aspects of entrepreneurship); and incubation (contract research organizations and business incubators programs). Discussion questions include: (1) What are ways to use PBL in the two-year college STEM classroom? (2) What are ways to use active and problem-based learning as a means of instilling entrepreneurial skills? (3) How can you use the question, “How do you start a business?” as a PBL problem?

Session 7: Strategies for Successful Secondary School Pathways to STEM CareersGovernorsFacilitator: Kristi Jean, Nanoscience Program Coordinator, Center for Nanoscience Technology Training, North Dakota State College of Science, ND

The successful “2+2+2” model provides a seamless transition for secondary students to enter STEM careers.Community colleges play a critical role in this model as the middle “2” in delivering highly-skilled technical workers into the workforce pipeline.Recognizing that not all career pathway programs require a rigid “2+2+2” framework, flexibility must be allowed depending on regional industry needs.In this Birds of a Feather session, participants will share information on their strategies and current opportunities and challenges.Sharing information, resources, and lessons learned will allow participants to take their strategy and make the model a reality. Discussion questions include: (1) Have you developed a basic strategy or framework for a career pathway model?Have you clearly defined your role? (2) Have you identified the key partners and people to make it happen? (3) What challenges have you identified at the secondary level?What challenges have you identified in working the with four-year universities?Did you find a way to overcome these challenges? (4) Have you connected with local and regional industry to understand their workforce needs?How does their feedback get brought back into your strategic plan?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will discuss key issues in blended and distance learning in higher education such as ways to leverage online learning programs to increase the nation’s education level, creating an authentic online experience for students that builds the skills needed to succeed in the global workforce, professional development of online instructors, and issues of effectively measuring student performance online. Discussion questions include: (1) What is the greatest stigma around online degrees, and how can we combat it? (2) How do you create a community when faculty are geographically distant? (3) How do you create a student-centered, constructivist, authentic learning environment in an online/hybrid course? (4) How do you get students engaged and maintain that engagement and retention in blended and online courses?

In this session, participants will share their experiences when two- and four-year institutions collaborate and form partnerships.Win-Win scenarios, which have yielded mutually beneficial results, will be discussed.Discussion questions include: (1) What kind of partnership with a university would a community college consider valuable?What’s in it for the university? (2) How can joint grant writing and management efforts leverage the strengths of each institution to yield higher success rates?(3) How can leveraging university laboratories benefit both the types of institutions? (4) Community colleges are generally faster at responding to shifts in the workforce, how can the university take advantage of this? (5) How important is articulation?How can one move a technician into a four-year program? (6) What is the potential benefit of community college/university collaborations to stakeholders such as students, tax payers, and industry?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on using resources and best practices to manage their ATE projects and centers more effectively. Discussion will focus on understanding the responsibilities of a project manager/project director, how to organize and manage projects in the most effective manner, how to deal with unexpected problems if/when they occur, and how to identify and maximize the use of existing resources. Discussion questions include: (1) What are your responsibilities as a NSF project manager? (2) How do you continuously monitor your project for effectiveness? (3) How do you create and successfully manage projects being done by faculty and others not under your direct supervision? (4) How do you maintain consistent communication throughout the project staff and stakeholders?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will share information on how to work effectively with institutional research (IR) offices to access and analyze data to make data-driven decisions; determine data needs for ATE programs including online activities to capture student progression and success; partner with state or multistate labor agencies to access employment outcomes for program graduates; determine the benefits and limits to tracking students post-program through a variety of methods (surveys, interviews, Unemployment Insurance wage records); and maximize promising practices and resources to guide program improvement and accountability efforts.Discussion questions include (1)How do you think critically about which data elements will produce the most meaningful insights to vital questions of student success? (2) What key partnerships are required to begin to access and analyze meaningful data? (3) How do you build institutional capacity for longitudinal student analysis for your programs? (4) How can data-sharing partnerships/agreements already in place at your institution be incorporated into your programs? (5) How do you use data to inform program sustainability?

In this Birds of a Feather session, ATE conference participants will examine the dynamic between researchers conducting targeted research on technician education, ATE center and project PIs, and other stakeholders. Researchers want to know what types of data are most meaningful to ATE PIs’ work. In the course of their grants, PIs often make discoveries that they would like to document through rigorous research. This session will offer discussion on how and where both groups can come together to share ideas and findings, as well as how to reach out to new stakeholders. Discussion questions include: (1) How do ATE PIs see data informing the work that they do? How do they apply data and research findings to their day-to-day work? (2) What types of research do they find most useful? (3) What characteristics do ATE PIs look for in high-quality research? How do they define “quality?” (4) Who do ATE PIs see as the primary stakeholders for ATE Targeted Research projects? (5) What recommendations might ATE PIs offer to researchers regarding communicating the findings of research?

In this Birds of a Feather session,ATE conference participants will share information on harnessing social media platforms andtechnologies to communicate and engage with key audiences. Discussion will focus on currentinformation dissemination practices to determine how social media platforms may be used to streamlinecommunication practices and maximize the use of existing resources. Discussion questions include: (1) How do you create a strategy for leveraging social media platforms for information dissemination? (2) How do you create a tiered approach to information dissemination for your center or project? (3) How can you build your social media audience? (4) How can you increase engagement through the adoption of platforms that allow for real-timeinteraction, such as a micro-blogging, to allow for more regular communication between centers,projects, and social media audiences?

A new report from the National Research Council (2012), Education for Work and Life:Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century Skills, recommends design and delivery of instruction at all levels (from P-K through undergraduate) to foster deeper learning.Deeper learning is the process of learning for transfer—the ability to take what was learned in one situation and applying it to new situations.The product of deeper learning is transferable knowledge within a subject area, including content knowledge of the area and understanding of how, why, and when to apply this knowledge to answer questions or solve problems in that area. The report refers to this blend of closely intertwined knowledge and skills as “21st century competencies.”For example, through deeper learning of biotechnology, students would understand the general principles underlying biotechnology and also how to apply this understanding to support further learning and problem-solving in biotechnology. They would develop transferable 21st century competencies—encompassing cognitive knowledge, communications skills, and self-management skills—that would facilitate continued learning and problem-solving in biotechnology, both in college and in the workplace.Discussion questions include: (1) Are employers or trade associations asking your ATE program to develop 21st century skills?If so, which skills are they seeking? (2) How have you addressed the challenge of helping students gain deep technical knowledge and skills and also 21st century skills? (3) In your view, are skills and knowledge closely intertwined, or are they unrelated?Why do you have this view?

Universal Design in education is an approach to designing course instruction, materials, and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Modifications for students, especially for those with disabilities, are built into the curriculum, not merely added later on as needs arise. Universal Design provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. Simply stated, Universal Design is just good teaching!In this Birds of a Feather session, participants will share information on how they have engaged students with disabilities in their classrooms and the Universal Design principles that can be used to improve teaching and access to learning. Discussion questions include: (1) What challenges have you experienced teaching students with disabilities in your classes? How have you overcome these challenges? (2) What advanced planning did you need to do to accommodate students with disabilities in your course(s)? (3) Have you used Universal Design principles to improve instruction and access to learning in your classes? How did these modifications benefit students with disabilities? How did all students benefit?

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

7:30 am –12:00 pm Conference RegistrationWest Conference Foyer

7:30 – 8:45 amShowcase III Set-upExhibit Hall

7:30 – 8:45 amContinental BreakfastRegency

7:30 – 10:00 amWiFi Hot Spot and Internet CafeExecutive

7:45 – 8:45 amBreakfast RoundtablesAmbassador

9:00 – 10:15 amPlenary Session Regency

V. Celeste Carter, Lead ATE Program Director, National Science Foundation, VAJohn Cherniavsky, Acting Division Director, Division of Research on Learning in Formal and InformalSettings, National Science Foundation, VA

Closing the Technical Workforce Gap – The Role of Community Colleges in STEM Education Keynote Speaker: Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, U.S. Department of Labor, DC

The U.S. Department of Labor is working to ensure that our nation’s institutions of higher education are helping adults to succeed in acquiring the skills, degrees, and credentials needed for highly-skilled employment. Millions of workers have been dislocated from their jobs in traditional industries and need new skills to compete for jobs in the current and future labor market. Assistant Secretary Oates will address the need for a robust and diverse STEM workforce, the important role that community colleges play in meeting this need, and the Department of Labor’s initiatives and directions supporting community colleges in those efforts.